Valentine's present

My Beloved worked retail for too many years for us to really celebrate Valentine's Day.  We have good food - tonight was steak, scallops, roasted vegetables, salad, peanut butter brownie, and wine.  We sometimes exchange cards.  He may pick me flowers.  This year I came home to roses and a cleaver!  The cleaver was not really planned for Valentine's, it just got finished.  

The roses were part of a silly from facebook.  But they smell lovely because Small Mister picked the bouquet that smelled the best.  I am going to save the petals for my bath.

I am very excited about the cleaver.  I wish I had a rabbit so I could use it.  Might need to go to the farmer's market or the grocery store!  Right now, rabbits are about the only thing I need a cleaver for but I know that will change in the future.

Tools.  I love tools.

all done!

The quilting is finished!  I still sound like a bowl of rice krispies but it is finished.  I am finding strengthening and stretching is helping my shoulders to heal but I am not always the best about.  And the next step of the quilt, putting the binding on, requires more manhandling.  It is at least smaller now.  

pan of s'mores

On pinterest, I saw this picture of a pan of s'mores middle that was being used as dip.  I had to try.  

I made gluten free shortbread (they were actually better the next day) for the graham cracker.  I put chocolate in the bottom of a cast iron pan and melted it.

Covered the chocolate with (slightly old) marshmallows.

Put the whole thing under the broiler and brown it.  Okay, so it was more like charcoal and we took that bit off.

Since the gluten free shortbread was so delicate, we had to use utensils to scoop out the middle.  We just put the cookie on top.

Oh my goodness rich!  And an easy way to make s'mores.

Saturday ice cream

I spent a lot of Saturday at my spinning wheel outside.  Small Mister wanted to be outside and it was nice enough that we could let him.  I needed to be able to watch, so I did it while spinning.  I still wonder how many minutes in a row you can push a swing.  I pushed for until he decided he wanted "ice cream truck."  Which means he wanted ice cream.

My Beloved and Small Mister sat down in the grass with frozen vanilla yogurt.  It was a hit.

So simple. So good.  We did not leave it out to soften so it was a bit hard but that did not really matter.

vanilla frozen yogurt

1 cup yogurt, I use a very thick goat yogurt that is full fat

1/4 cup sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla.  My vanilla is homemade rum based.

Blend all the ingredients together until the sugar dissolves into the yogurt.  Freeze in an ice cream maker or pour into a freezer proof bowl and put into the freezer.  Stir every hour or so for better texture, until it is frozen.

Makes smiles.

Small Mister "cookies"

I like hot cross buns.  But I admit, I like simple hot cross buns.  Just raisins and currants.  A little bit of a cinnamon glaze and the frosting.  Warm them up with a cup of tea and they are just lovely.  I like them for breakfast or an afternoon snack.  But I like bread in those forms.  

I was reading my twitter feed, which is an interesting combination of foodies, crafters, and authors, and saw a posting about a British tea cake.  It intrigued me.  Especially with white chocolate used instead of beef lard.

Small Mister calls them cookies.  They look kind of like cookies because I do not make them very large.  They are sweet because of the currants I used.  No frosting but you could frost them.  I have been eating them heated with butter.  Yum!  Small Mister eats them like cookies.  He likes to help make them!

tea cakes

Note:  Adapted form Dan Leopard.  Still waiting on the cookbook from the library so I can read the original recipe.

sourdough starter

125 ml water

120 grams flour

480 grams flour

150 ml milk

50 grams sugar

50 grams melted white chocolate

300 grams currants

1 teaspoon salt

3 eggs

The night before, mix the sourdough, water, and  120 grams flour.  Cover and let sit overnight in  a warm place.  When ready to use, take out a couple tablespoons of starter for next time.

Mix in the milk, eggs, and sugar.  Mix in the salt.  Mix in the melted white chocolate and currants.  Mix in the flour.  Turn out and knead on the counter.  You may need a bit more flour or water on your hands.  Keep the dough as soft as possible. 

When smooth (or as smooth as it gets with the currants in the dough), cover and let rise.  Punch down.  I did two rises because life dictated that. 

Cover a baking sheet with silpat or parchment paper.  Shape the cakes in small balls.  I like small but you may like bigger.  Cover and let rise until puffy.  They may not rise much due to the fruit but the dough will be softer and puffy.

Bake in a preheated 400 degree oven for about 20 minutes or until golden.

Cookies!  As Small Mister says.  Yummy with tea.